Agang SA

Agang SA, South Africanpolitical party founded in 2013 by Mamphela Ramphele, a noted activist, physician, educator, and businesswoman. One of the earliest stated goals of Agang SA (agang is the Sotho word for “build,” and SA refers to South Africa) was to tackle government corruption, which, it believed, had derailed the country’s progress—a pointed criticism directed toward the ruling African National Congress, which had led the government since 1994.

Ramphele announced her intent to form the party in February 2013, and Agang SA’s official launch was held later that year, in June, with Ramphele as the party leader. The party’s campaign for the 2014 national and provincial elections was initiated in November 2013. In addition to its zero-tolerance stance against corruption, the party campaigned on a platform that stressed the need to bolster education, create jobs, and improve health care and security in the country.

In January 2014 Agang SA and the Democratic Alliance (DA), the chief opposition party, announced that the two parties would merge and that Ramphele would be the new group’s presidential candidate in the upcoming national election. The proposed merger quickly fell apart, however, over a disagreement regarding whether the merger would be an equal partnership between the two parties or if Agang SA would be absorbed into the DA.

In the May 2014 elections, Agang SA won less than 1 percent of the national vote, which garnered the party two seats in the National Assembly. The party did not win any provincial legislative seats.

Shortly after the elections, disagreements within Agang SA regarding leadership and financial issues came to light and reached the boiling point in late June, when a faction of the party claimed to have suspended Ramphele from her role as party leader. Her supporters, however, rejected the suspension as being invalid and countered by claiming to expel or suspend the party members involved in Ramphele’s purported suspension. Amid the discord, in early July 2014 Ramphele announced that she was exiting the arena of party politics, thus stepping down as leader of Agang SA. Mike Tshishonga, the party’s chairperson and one of Ramphele’s critics, assumed the role of acting leader of the party.